He Lan Tianxia

With a snap, he got stuck again. This time, Murong Junlan was more experienced. He kept his body still, lifted one foot, and stomped down hard. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, for some reason, even with all his strength, Murong Junlan couldn't budge the ice. He jumped up and down more than a dozen times, but there was still no reaction. Murong Junlan guessed that the Ice Lotus Heart must have reached the bottom.

He was about to check where the exit was, but still feeling uneasy, he grabbed his broadsword and cleaved it a few times with tremendous force. Clang! Clang! Clang! The sound of ice blocks echoed, indicating that even the flower couldn't withstand the frost and had frozen solid.

Murong Junlan sheathed his sword and began searching for an exit. He slashed left and right, then up and down with the broadsword, and then bluntly struck it with the hilt, but still found no opening. He took out a flint from his sleeve and struck it, but it extinguished quickly because of the intense cold. He struck it again, and it extinguished again after a while. He repeated this five or six times, but Murong Junlan couldn't find anything different; it was all just ice as hard as stone.

Hmm, Murong Junlan suddenly remembered. The flower-shaped wall was soft just now, but it was as hard as a rock. So it must be getting colder and colder inside. Strangely, standing in such a cold place, he didn't feel cold at all. Could it be because his internal energy was so profound that he couldn't feel the cold? That didn't seem likely.

Murong Junlan opened his mouth and blew a breath into the air, but there was no white vapor. How could he explain these hard ice blocks? Murong Junlan took out the flint again, struck it once, then squatted down, holding the knife in his left hand and the flint with his right, wanting to know if he could melt the ice and snow at the tip of the knife.

Finally, the bizarre phenomenon occurred. The flint rapidly melted at the tip of the knife beneath his feet, spreading out in concentric circles of multicolored rays. In the center of each circle was a black dot, which gradually deepened and then swirled in circles, making his eyes dizzy. Murong Junlan concentrated intently, trying to find a clue to the exit.

The black circle spun faster and faster, and when it reached a certain point, the ice suddenly shattered. Before Murong Junlan could even see the sparks that had just appeared within the black circle, the ice beneath his feet crashed down again...

This was a hidden passage. If the previous path, the one adorned with flowers, was a bright path, representing daytime, then this hidden passage was the beginning of night. There was no coolness here, only the terror of darkness. Nothing could be seen, and the speed of the fall was no slower than the bright path; on the contrary, the speed was even faster. You couldn't touch anything, but the whooshing sound in your ears made you feel the chill even more acutely. An indescribable fear began to spread through Murong Junlan. What hadn't he seen? Could this hidden passage, the one adorned with flowers, frighten him? Murong Junlan didn't believe it.

A chilling gust of wind suddenly blew past his ears. There were no screams, only a biting cold. Murong Junlan couldn't help but shiver. Just as he was about to use his lazy man's secret technique to slow down his fall, something strange lunged at him from below and swallowed him whole.

Murong Junlan suddenly felt short of breath. He tried to grab at the air with his hand but couldn't grasp anything. He tried to cut with his knife but it was as empty as the wind. How strange!